1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a home network system and a control method for the same, and more particularly to a home network system capable of identifying operation statuses of electric home appliances connected to the home network system via a network, and receiving operation control commands, thereby controlling operations of the associated electric home appliances, while periodically receiving alive messages from the electric home appliances, each of which is maintained in a standby state because there is no associated operation control command received by the home network system, thereby displaying connected statuses of the standby electric home appliances, and a control method for this home network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a conventional home network system.
Recently, distribution of home network systems has been increased. Such a home network system is implemented by connecting a plurality of electric home appliances installed in a home through a single network, and connecting the network to an external network, for example, the Internet, so as to remotely control the electric home appliances in the home or at an outdoor place.
In order to allow the manager of the home network system to control the electric home appliances connected through the network in a central control manner, one of the electric home appliances must have an input unit adapted to allow the manager of the home network system to input control commands to respective electric home appliances, and an output unit adapted to output information about respective statuses of operations carried out in accordance with the input control commands. This electric home appliance is called a “home server”. In FIG. 1, this home server is designated by reference character “HS”.
The home server HS includes an Internet module adapted to process control signals transmitted to or received from the electric home appliances connected to the home network, and to connect the home network to an external network, that is, the Internet. In FIG. 1, the home network is designated by reference character “N”. The electric home appliances including the home server HS may be refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, TVs, etc.
The electric home appliances other than the home server HS perform control commands received thereto through the home server HS, and transmit data indicative of the results of operations carried out in response to respective control commands. These electric home appliances are called “client electric home appliances”. In FIG. 1, the client electric home appliances are designated by reference characters “C1” to “C4”. Although the home network system includes four client electric home appliances C1 to C4 in the case of FIG. 1, it may include only one client electric home appliance. Each of the client electric home appliances C1 to C4 is internally provided with a microcomputer to process data received thereto through the home network N and data to be transmitted through the home network N.
Thus, the home server, which is a refrigerator in the case of FIG. 1, is connected through the home network N with the client electric home appliances C1 to C4, which are a telephone, a lamp, a microwave oven, and a washing machine, respectively, in the case of FIG. 1, so as to perform transmission and reception of control signals, thereby controlling operations of the client electric home appliances C1 to C4.
In the conventional home network system having the above-mentioned configuration, there may be a problem in that, when the network N is instable, a control signal from the home server HS may not be transmitted to an associated one of the client electric home appliances C1 to C4.
In this case, the home server HS determines that the connection between the home server HS and the associated client electric home appliance has failed. Based on this determination, the home server HS excludes this client electric home appliance from the targets to be controlled.
In order to again perform the control for the client electric home appliance, which has been determined as failing the connection to the home server, it is necessary to release the connection of the failed client electric home appliance and the network, and then to again connect the failed client electric home appliance to the network, so as to again try transmission of a control signal to the client electric home appliance.
Meanwhile, when a new client electric home appliance is connected to the network, an operation initiation message is transmitted to the home server. Where the network is instable, however, the operation initiation message may not reach the home server. In this case, the home server cannot recognize the connection of the client electric home appliance.
In order to enable the home server to normally recognize the newly connected client electric home appliance, it is necessary to release the connection of the client electric home appliance, and then to again connect the client electric home appliance to the network. Alternatively, it is necessary to reset the system of the home server.